December 29, 2013

I'm watching Goals on Sunday in HD and the studio stuff is out of sync slightly, but the ads, including one for Sky Movies is spot on (Cumberpatch's enunciation is a perfect test).Over on SS1 in SD it's all in sync. As lip sync issues go it's mild, but, unless Sky provides a separate feed for the ads (which I doubt) it's a Sky feed fault that apparenty doesn't affect their own service.

December 28, 2013

Those nice Netflix people have added the final season of Dexter (season 8) and the first three of The Good Wife. Also Vampire Diaries s.4 and Warehouse 13 s.4, plus there's the rather wonderful first season of the cartoon Adventure Time for those young at heart.
And if you're wondering why Sky Movies still hasn't shown the first Hobbit film - it doesn't appear to have the rights. Netflix has the streaming rights to all three Hobbit films in a deal secured back in 2011. Sky Movies normally shows films a year or so after they're in the cinema, although recently the likes of Iron Man 3 and Skyfall appeared after just six months. They may still show the Hobbit (it was on Sky Box Office / Virgin Movies VOD I think) but it's been on Netflix since August and still isn't listed in the upcoming movies on Sky Movies Premiere yet.
Incidentally, here's an interesting list that's appeared on IMDB that highlights many of the top movies on Netflix UK http://www.imdb.com/list/Mz4se1ZIEmY/. Hopefully the author can keep it up to date - good work fella!

December 27, 2013

The data I get on this blog sometimes makes interesting reading as it gives me an indication of what topics are most popular. It's not always a clear indicator as it tends to ignore visitors who don't venture passed the home page, but it's as good a guide as I get as to what are the most popular topics. Normally the blog has around 48k page views a month, but some posts attract a fair audience on their own.
For example, the post of 2013 with the most page views was BT Sports on Virgin Media, which had 7,433 visitors in May and is the third highest audience in all the years I've been doing this blog, closely followed by BT Sport will be on Virgin Media but pricing and HD to be confirmed (6,811 visitors). In fact the (eventual) arrival of BT Sports was by quite a distant the topic of the year, although any posts on the TV Anywhere for Android attracted at least 2,500 page views each and Netflix posts pulled in a regular 1,200+.
But it was that hardy perennial Sky Atlantic that, even though still mostly rumour, kept attracting around 4,000 visitors each time. Even a short post like this one attracted 4,354 views.
Incidentally, the most popular post ever on VMHD was this one, which pulled in 13,479 views back in November 2011.

December 10, 2013

At 8.30 this morning the last SD channels in my Favourites listings bit the big one. Yes, with the launch of BBC News HD (and with BBC Four HD alive and kicking from 7pm this evening) the days of standard definition on my TiVo and aging V+ are finally consigned to history. Of course, there will still be many programmes on the HD channels I watch that will be upscaled SD, but the quest I embarked upon some six years ago when I first launched this blog is finally at an end, and we've gone from a single HD channel when VMHD launched (BBC HD) to over 50 today.
Of course, not everyone is so lucky, but those two BBC channels were the last SD regulars I watch so I'm one happy bunny.

December 04, 2013

They're shuffling around the BBC HD channels when the new ones arrive. BBC One HD stays on 108, but they're moving BBC Alba to channel 161 and BBC Two HD to 162 (from 187), then the new ones will be BBC THREE HD 163BBC FOUR HD 164BBC NEWS HD 604CBBC HD 710Ceebies HD 711Not sure why they didn't put BBC One HD onto 161, but then channel numbering since the introduction of HD has always been a hit and miss affair.

December 03, 2013

Google has struck a deal with HBO to make Game of Thrones available on its TV service, getting one over rival Apple iTunes, which does not have rights for the hit fantasy series.
HBO has struck a wide-ranging deal to make shows including Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire, True Blood, Girls and Veep available on the Google Play service for the first time.
The deal will see older shows, such as The Wire, The Sopranos and Band of Brothers available to own and stream via Google Play from next week.
Google is charging £18.49 for the full third season of Game of Thrones, or £1.89 an episode.

I've no idea of whether or not there will be an HD option (the pricing suggests just SD. Anyone hoping for HBO shows via Netflix is likely to be disappointed as there's little love lost between TimeWarner (HBO's parent) and Netflix - the only HBO content I've come across on Netflix is the BBC co-production Rome.